A Bhavnagar court on Wednesday permitted narco test on Minter Singh, the key accused arrested from Madhya Pradesh in the 2007 lion poaching case, which is being investigated by IG (prisons) Keshav Kumar.
"Minter has so far named his Uttar Pradesh associate Shabbir Qureshi but more names would come up once Qureshi is interrogated," Kumar told DNA.
The police will soon take the custody of Qureshi, who is currently in UP police custody. "The entire trade of lion body parts is held in international market and Minter is a key link between the poachers and the international traders," Kumar said.
"We were not able to establish the exact link between the two states, till Minter named Qureshi," Kumar said. Qureshi was arrested by the UP police for allegedly selling 13 tiger skins. Minter is in the second layer in the pyramid of the lion poachers and traders in the country. "The next phase of investigation will include names of the international traders, who might had purchased the body parts of the lions," another source in CID (crime) said.
The trade of body parts of wild animals is spread across the globe and the lion poachers from the state too could have a link to it. "The poachers from the Baheriaya tribe have been arrested, booked and convicted and they had sold the lion body parts in the international market," a police source said.
Minter is considered significant for the case as he has all the vital information related to the trade. He was arrested from Kutney village in MP. A total of 36 people have been convicted for poaching of eight Asiatic lions at three different sites in and around the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in 2007. Carcasses were found at different places, including Babariya range in the Gir sanctuary as well as from Bhunduriya village in the coastal belt of Bhavnagar district, 100 km from the sanctuary.
The CID (crime) during the course of investigation found that those arrested had contacts in UP and MP. The MP-based poachers come to Gujarat to kill the lions; they later sell the body parts in MP. They have also links with people in Karnataka and UP.
